The Squirrels celebrate 25 years in Seattle

That’s a tall order in a town best known for its rainy weather and Scandinavian reticence. But Morgan, leader of Jet City jokester band The Squirrels, has been giving it his best for more than two decades.

The Squirrels

Saturday night at The Tractor Tavern in Ballard The Squirrels will celebrate their 25th anniversary.

“It’s about as much fun and as happy as I get,” Morgan said of the band’s infamous live shows, where they’ve done everything from perform their own interpretation of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” to take on tunes from “The Wizard of Oz” in a way Dorothy probably wouldn’t recognize.

Morgan is proud of the fact that in many respects The Squirrels were ahead of their time.

“We definitely injected some well-needed sense of humor into the scene. That can be directly traced to some bands that came after us,” he said.

The Squirrels also started doing mashups – combining elements from different songs – before others. “We called them muddlies,” Morgan explained. “We were doing the music to one song with the lyrics and melody to a completely different one.”

But The Squirrels will soon leave the forest. After Saturday night’s show they’ve got only two more scheduled gigs – the Ballard Seafood Fest on July 25 and their annual Christmas show on Dec. 12.

More than 30 musicians have played in the group through the years, including people like Young Fresh Fellow and REM side man Scott McCaughey and Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer from The Posies

“I’m just done,” Morgan said. “There’s nothing I know how to do to make this band go any farther than it’s gone.”

The scene has changed, he said. Where before bands could make a decent amount of cash performing live now it’s increasingly hard to make a buck. “At this point the guy stamping hands at the door is making more money than the musicians,” Morgan said.

At Saturday’s show the band will be giving away a four-song EP as a way to say thanks to all their fans. The party starts at 9 p.m.

“We definitely made a lot of people happy over the years,” Morgan said. “I feel good about that.”